The Romance of Poaching in the Highlands of Scotland - As Illustrated in the Lives of John Farquharson and Alexander Davidson, The Last of the Free-Foresters

By W. McCombie Smith

Contents Include: John Farquharson - Lonavey - Lost on the Grampians - A Glorious Twalt O' August! - A Dundonian's Lesson in Deerstalking - Two Days with John Farquharson - Athole Gamekeepers Cleverly Outwitted - How They Carried off the Deer - An English Sportsman's Initiation - Sportsmen Sold: Gamekeepers made Game of - Seven deer Shot Within a Minute - Stalking the Stalkers - Running the Blockade - A Wonderful Dream - Minor Incidents, Bamboozling Glenshee Gamekeepers, Deer Attacked by an eagle, Two Close Shaves - Ranter's Famous Fox Chase - All About "Nell," Farquharson's Pointer - Alexander Davidson

• Language: English
• Publisher: Case Press
• Release date: Jun 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781528761567

Book preview

PREFACE

ROMANCE in the present case does not mean pure fiction. The events and adventures narrated are not only founded on fact, they are records of what really happened. Romance in this instance means that the poachers and poaching delineated are so strangely and picturesquely different from the ordinary conception of both, as to be an almost poetic ideal of the ordinary varieties. There is no romance in prowling by night, covering coveys of partridges, or enveloping scores of rabbits in the meshes of a net. There is nothing romantic in the idle loafer who haunts low pubs by day, and by night steals out to set across field-gates a net, into which his dog silently drives the timid hare. Not romance but brutal savagery marks the fierce, and not seldom fatal, encounters between lawless ruffians, bent on having a share of animals possessing a high market value protected in a semi-wild state, and those who are hired to protect them.

The ordinary poacher lives a life apart from the more reputable portion of the community, even amongst the wage-earning classes. He is seldom seen by day, except when on his way to and from a court of justice, or the jail, in the hands of policemen. John Farquharson, at the time he was performing his most brilliant poaching exploits, proved himself the champion shot of the British Isles at long range shooting, could fire more shots in a minute than any man living; introduced a new position in rifle shooting, which was deemed worthy of mention in Punch, and was adopted by many of the best shots in Great Britain and America. He was the inventor and patentee of two valuable improvements on gun and rifle. His improvement on the rifle of his time was within one vote of being adopted by the British Government, and subsequent events proved its superiority over the invention preferred to it. For many years the Farquharson-Metford rifle was in the hands of the best shots, and made work second to none at Wimbledon. He was on terms of intimacy with many of the nobility and gentry interested in shooting of all kinds, and for long his name was a house-hold word amongst thousands of his countrymen. Soon after the articles which appeared under the heading of the Romance of Poaching appeared in the People’s Journal, the writer met a Scotsman, a mason recently returned from South Africa. He was at Kimberley when the articles were appearing, and he said, when the weekly mail which brought the People’s Journal, which follows Scotsmen all over the world, was due at Kimberley, a group of Scotsmen used to gather at the Post Office, and the great object of interest to them was shown by the oft-repeated remark, I wonder what Farquharson’s doing this week.

The reader will find in the life of Farquharson’s prototype, Alexander Davidson, a man as far removed, and superior to the ordinary run of poacher, as John Farquharson was. Davidson’s poaching exploits were so transparently the outcome of an ineradicable love of the primitive man for the pursuit of beasts of chase, that many landed proprietors, the class to which we owe the enactment and enforcement of the game laws, gave him direct permission to shoot over their properties, or indirectly granted it by ignoring or winking at his presence and depredations. Of a man who at his death carried on his person an invitation from a future Duke of Richmond, to come as a welcome guest to Gordon Castle, and of whom two respected ministers of the Church of Scotland wrote with respect, and kindly appreciation, after he was gone, we cannot think or speak as we do of men who become poachers to shirk a life of toil, kill animals by unsportsmanlike methods, and sell them to afford the means of drunken debauches.

John Farquharson and Alexander Davidson were men who could and did read their Bible, and found therein, So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. They did not find it written that God said, Let a few favoured individuals have dominion over fish, fowl, and every living thing, with power to punish the many to whom such dominion has not been given, but believed that all creatures living in a state of nature were for all mankind. In following out that belief to its logical conclusion they were called poachers; if so, they were far from being common ones, and their lives had so many elements of romance in them that their infringements of the game-laws were a veritable romance in poaching.

For the sketch of the life of Alexander Davidson the writer is indebted for almost the whole of it to the Rev. John G. Michie, Dinnet, who in the most handsome manner gave full permission to draw upon his life of Davidson, published in his Deeside Tales, the only authoritative account of it available. Since the Deeside Tales were published, Mr. Michie has received much additional matter relative to Davidson, and it is to be hoped he will embody it in a new edition, which would be eagerly welcomed by many on Deeside and far beyond it.

Permission to publish the Romance of Poaching in book form was freely given by the proprietors of the People’s Journal, in which paper Farquharson’s adventures first appeared.

THE ROMANCE OF POACHING

JOHN FARQUHARSON

JOHN FARQUHARSON was born in the third decade of the nineteenth century at Daldhu, Glenfernate, in the parish of Moulin, Perthshire. His ancestors traced their descent right back to Finla Mor, the first great chief of the Farquharsons of Braemar. When a boy he was taught to repeat the names of the various MacFinlas and Maclans through whom he traced his descent from Finla Mor, and the Straloch Farquharsons to the present day have retained Finla as a family name.

In the time of John Farquharson’s father and grandfather the family rented extensive grazings from the Duke of Athole. These grazings extended to the boundary of Athole deer forest, and the upper part of the ground rented became part of the forest latterly. For generations the family had lived in this district, and to understand John Farquharson’s invincible longing for untrammelled grouse shooting and deer stalking, it is necessary to glance at the great change that came over the Scottish Highlands during the nineteenth century, as regards the shooting of game. It was stated on the authority of Mr. C. G. Milnes-Gaskell, then M.P. for Morley, that "There was no let of shootings before 1805, when one near the Bridge of Tummel was let to Sir Fletcher Norton for £5. Even as late as 1833, a stranger could fish and shoot over any part of the Highlands without interruption."

The writer knew several old men, in the lower cultivated districts of Strathardle, who did not reach man’s estate until some years subsequent to 1833, who made yearly raids amongst the deer on the outskirts of Athole forest, and who would take a shot at grouse or mountain hares, as a matter of course, whenever they felt inclined. If that was so lower down, still greater freedom was exercised in the head of Glenfernate. When John Farquharson was a boy, he often heard neighbours recounting in his father’s house successful forays amongst the deer. He himself began his shooting career with bow and arrow when little more than a child. He was still a mere boy when he fired his first shot with a gun. He had been out with a party at a fox hunt, and as they were returning young Farquharson saw a white hare lying in its form. He lamented that he had left his bow and arrow at home, whereupon one of the party handed him a two-barrelled fowling-piece, with both barrels at full cock. The boy, taking careful aim, pulled both triggers, with the result that he was knocked heels-over-head backwards and rose with a bloody nose. But what of that, he shot the hare, and sore in body but jubilant in mind, carried it home in triumph. But it was not long before the young lad aimed at something higher than a hare in its form. Before long he could bring down a grouse on the wing, and then he had only to stalk and kill a stag to be a full-fledged free forester, which also followed in due course. Farquharson grew up to be a man rather over than under the medium height, sparely built, but capable of enduring great fatigue. He had clear, keen grey eyes, which when out on the mountains seemed to let nothing escape their notice. He was fond of reading, and could talk intelligently on most subjects.

There was less scruple in stalking deer in Athole deer forest from the belief that it was a Royal forest, and that the Duke of Athole was merely the Sovereign’s head gamekeeper, whose ancestors, after the Scottish Kings went to England, had usurped the Royal prerogative. But in proportion as the value of grouse shootings and deer forests increased, so also increased the care’ with which they were guarded. Farquharson therefore made up his mind that the safest and easiest means whereby he might satisfy his sporting inclinations was to become gamekeeper. Poaching is the best possible training for gamekeeper. He found no trouble in procuring a situation, and served for three years with Lord Abercromby. When he left Lord Abercromby he entered the service of the late Lord Rosebery, grandfather of the present Earl of Rosebery* where he remained nine years. In both these places he had holidays, and, while in Lord Rosebery’s service, he had permission to attend rifle meetings, besides his annual holidays.

While in Lord Rosebery’s service Farqharson had the pleasure of teaching the present Earl*, then a boy, to shoot, and being an ardent Liberal in politics, he was, as long as he lived, deeply interested in, and extremely proud of, Lord Rosebery’s political career. It was at this time too that he began to acquire fame as a rifle shot. At the second annual competition of the Edinburgh and Mid-Lothian Rifle Association, in 1862, he won the Edinburgh Cup, value £30. It was at this meeting that he first gave practical proof of the value of what came to be known as the Farquharson position in rifle shooting. The following is the account of it in The Scotsman of June 19th, 1862:—Considerable amusement was created during the afternoon by the method of shooting adopted by the hero of the principal competition—the winner of the Edinburgh Cup—Mr. Farquharson, gamekeeper to the Earl of Rosebery, this gentleman, instead of kneeling and raising his rifle to his shoulder, as did all the other competitors, staggered them a little by lying flat on his back, resting his weapon across his body, and passing his left arm round his head to his right shoulder—thus securing a steadier aim, and hitting the target at every shot. A hearty round of cheering from the spectators and from the members of the firing party with whom he was competing greeted him as he fired his last shot, which went straight to the bull’s-eye.

The new position soon created other feelings than that of amusement. Farquharson made such splendid work with this position that many adopted it. In C. A. Wheeler’s Sportascrapiana, second edition, 1868, will be found the following remarks by the celebrated Captain Horatio Ross on position in rifle shooting:—The Hythe kneeling position is an admirable one for soldiers when firing in line, but it is not good for match shooting or for skirmishing, especially if there be a strongish wind. Almost all the good shots now shoot lying on the ground flat, and resting both elbows on the ground. Some shoot lying on their backs; and a countryman of mine (Farquharson) makes marvellous scores in that position; but almost all those who have imitated him have failed. When subsequently Farquharson became famous at Wimbledon he figured in Punch as the inventor of the new position. It was afterwards introduced into the United States and, some thirty years after Farquharson had used it in open competition at Edinburgh, a newspaper article by Lieut. P. Fremont, U.S.A., was illustrated by a rifleman in the exact Farquharson position, which was styled, The Fulton Position! The position, it is said, was discovered accidentally by Farquharson when deer stalking. While lying on his back with his rifle by his side a stag came within range, and as he could not change his position without being seen, he had perforce to fire as he lay or lose the stag. Instead of finding it a bad position, he found he never held the rifle steadier or saw the sights better. It was in the back position that Farquharson made his marvellous scores in the rapid firing competitions at Wimbledon. The number of shots he fired in a given time at Wimbledon in 1870, and the score he made, has never been equalled with the same class of weapon. But, perhaps, the most remarkable thing about the back position is, that it had been used almost a hundred years before by another famous Scottish marksman. There is hardly anything more wonderful in history than the stupendous mismanagement and dense stupidity of the British War Office, from the time of the American War of Independence right up to the Boer War, and the present year of grace, 1904.* The American War of Independence, the fighting with Napoleon, the conquest of India, were all gone through with a muzzle-loading firearm that did not average a shot per minute, and could not reliably hit a barn door at one hundred yards. Yet Patrick Ferguson, born at Pifour, Aberdeenshire, in 1744, patented a breech-loading rifle in 1776, with which he fired seven shots a minute in the presence of that pig-headed monarch George III. The rifle was sighted for ranges from 100 to 500 yards, and more accurate at 500 yards than the service weapon at 100 yards. The inventor armed a corps of loyalists with it, who helped to win the battle of Brandywine in 1777, where Ferguson himself had the chance of picking off Washington, but did not do so because he was disgusted with the idea of firing at the back of an un-offending individual, who was acquitting himself very coolly of his duty. Major Ferguson fell on October 7th, 1780, while defending King’s Mountain, South Carolina, and a breech-loading rifle was not introduced into the British Army until some ninety years later, and was not put into the hands of the Militia and Volunteers until the winter of 1871-2. In 1807 Alexander J. Forsyth, a Scottish minister, invented and patented a percussion cap, which was brought under the notice of the Government of that time, but percussion caps were not introduced into the British Army until 1835, and were not fully adopted until 1842.

But to return to the back position, Patrick Ferguson shot from the back position when exhibiting the capabilities of his rifle before George III. When this fact was made known, on the